Talks about a new branch: Taiwanese minister for economic affairs visits LEYBOLD OPTICS

Alzenau, 12/2004

Newspaper clipping from an article published in 'Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung' on 14th December 2004. Please find the German original attached as a PDF.

Alzenau. At the start of her one-week information journey through Germany, the Taiwanese minister for economic affairs, Mrs Mei-Yueh Ho, paid a visit to LEYBOLD OPTICS GmbH in Alzenau. There were 20 representatives of her country’s industry travelling in her company. For Leybold’s managing director, Helmut Frankenberger, the simple fact that his firm was chosen to be the first stop of the delegation shows the Taiwanese industry’s esteem for this prospective partner.

This choice was surely due to Leybold’s increased activities on the Asian market. While last year 30 per cent of Leybold’s 102 million euro turnover were gained in Asia, the percentage has risen to as much as 55 per cent this year, says the company. LEYBOLD OPTICS is counted among the leading manufacturers of coating systems. In the past twelve months alone, LEYBOLD OPTICS GmbH says, it has sold 24 systems in China. Now it is about to set up an Asian \'spearhead\', as the company spokesman, Mr Benjamin Knöfler, put it. It is not yet certain whether the new branch is to be opened in Taiwan, China, or Indonesia. Apparently, no definite agreements have been reached during the visit. But that seems to be due to Taiwan’s tradition of making final decisions only after consultation with the leading powers.

The company was founded 150 years ago by Ernst Leybold from Cologne and the Hanau-born Wilhelm Karl Heraeus, who had devoted their work to the invention of new production methods. Since 1999 the firm has been called LEYBOLD OPTICS GmbH. In 2001 it was taken over by EQT, a Swedish private investor. Its annual turnover of 100 million euros is gained by 400 staff in 13 branches on all continents. 280 of them are employed at the site in the northern industrial area of Alzenau, which has been the company’s headquarters for two years now.

For example, Leybold systems are used to coat glasses for sun-glasses in any colour you like. Leybold also sells to suppliers of the automobile industry or producers of flat screens. Another branch of the company specializes in precision optics, were filters, mirrors, and lenses, and electrooptical components for laser and night-vision devices are at the centre of attention.

 

About LEYBOLD OPTICS

As a prominent manufacturer of vacuum coating systems and developer of processes for the thin film technology, LEYBOLD OPTICS is represented in thirteen countries worldwide. The main focus of our processing technologies is on evaporation, sputtering and plasma-assisted coating processes for 3D-Coating, Web, Display, Glass, Optics, Solar and Special Systems.

The basis of our success was laid in Germany 150 years ago by Ernst Leybold and Wilhelm Carl Heraeus. They addressed their pioneering spirit to the search for new manufacturing processes and founded our internationally recognized vacuum-technology company, which has set market standards ever since.